A consortium lead by Nextel Aerospace Defence & Security has announced that it is developing a new generation of unmanned vehicle simulators in response to the future training needs of operators of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, in line with the integration of these aircraft in non-segregated airspace.
Project SIMSART will allow ab-initio training, type certification and recurrent training to RPAS pilots according to the future regulations currently in development by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
The project consortium also includes the Center for Advanced Aerospace Technologies (CATEC), the company Unmanned Solutions (USOL) and the Dynamics Systems Research Group of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM).
The initiative is supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the National Programme for Research Aimed at the Challenges of Society, within the National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013-2016.
SIMSART architecture is based on Nextel’s Simware simulation platform, which provides an open architecture simulation, compatible with all major standards and Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) products.
SIMSART’s features will include:
- Agile and easy deployment of training simulators thanks to the open architecture of Simware and its ability to integrate with the monitoring stations of the real system.
- “Multi-Role” Capacity. SIMSART can be also used as a test bench for UAV systems due to its ability to be integrated directly with real UAVs subsystems that use the same standards as those supported by the simulator.
- Easy scalability of the simulator, for example to add training capacities for payload operators.
